Tech’s struggles in worst conference loss under Smith

STILLWATER, Okla. — Texas Tech’s defense has been one of the team’s biggest strengths in its strong recent Big 12 surge.

The Red Raiders couldn’t match that intensity in an 84-62 loss at Oklahoma State that marked their largest conference loss of the season.

Veteran Tech coach Tubby Smith didn’t sugarcoat his team’s struggles after the loss, which came on the heels of impressive efforts in losses at No. 17 Iowa State and No. 8 Kansas.

“That was a disappointing performance on our part,” Smith said. “We’d been playing OK, but today, we took a step backward as far as with execution and turnovers.”

With Marcus Smart back in the lineup, OSU’s offense was too fast and physical for the Red Raiders. A game after allowing no transition points against Kansas on Tuesday, the OSU streaked by them for a 23-4 edge in fast-break points.

After Tech’s early defense limited OSU without a field goal for more than 10 minutes early in the game, the Cowboys hit 26 of their final 39 field-goal attempts. It helped the Cowboys finish with 50 points in the second half, matching the most points scored against the Red Raiders in a half this season. Baylor also scored 50 points against Tech in the Red Raiders’ 82-72 victory over the Bears on Jan. 15.

“We just didn’t respond and had too many turnovers and bad decisions,” Smith said. “Overall, this was probably the worst half we’ve had this year. I don’t know, maybe we can just throw this one out and move on.”

Typifying Tech’s struggles were two turnovers on inbounds passes after OSU baskets that the Cowboys turned into easy baskets.

The first came with Marcus Smart made a steal after a basket, sparking a run of four points in less than three seconds shortly before the half that sparked the Cowboys after an earlier lull before the break.

“Great players make those decisions,” Smith said. “(Smart) is very crafty, and that’s why he’s one of the best steal guys in the business.

“It was pretty smart on his part, and he’s an intelligent player. It makes us look pretty dumb because we’re just trying to take the ball out of bounds. Your inbounder has to take a look and not just step out of bounds and pass in the ball like that. That was a bad mistake, but it always takes two.”